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So one of our most beloved family traditions for the Christmas holiday is to cuddle up in new pajamas and watch Christmas movies on Christmas eve.
I pull out the big mugs and cocoa and my girls request more marshmallows than liquid in theirs. This year instead of making all the pajamas myself I decided to take the east way out and just order some.

I’m happy to say that Natalia’s have arrived and I’m really excited to give them to her. The Bumblebee pajama set from #jxstarkid is not only adorable, but is super soft and roomy, which is perfect for cuddling up and sleeping in. The little embroidered bee even has soft furry little wings. <3

I think she’s going to be thrilled.

If you’re inclined to do so, you can get your own set of bumblebee pajamas (or even check out the other adorable set featuring a ladybug) here: http://amzn.to/2gGSLi1

It’s that time of year again folks when the leaves fall from the trees and frost settles in. As we all know, with the snow preparing to settle in we’ve got another things to prepare for – cold and flu season.

Fire cider is a popular herbal folk remedy that helps to ward off illness and keep you feeling your best all winter long. Packed full of nourishing foods and spicy bits for circulation, fire cider is a hot, vinegary remedy that is sure to warm you up on a cold day, boost your health, and should be a staple for you home kitchen.

Because this is a traditional folk recipe, the ingredients can be changed depending upon what is in season or what you may have already around your house. The staple ingredients are vinegar, garlic, onion, ginger and horseradish but we’ve added a few more ingredients to really take the immunity-boosting power over the top. For this rendition I left out the horseradish because my local store didn’t have any fresh and added in lemon, some herbs and jalapenos.

Once you’ve let it steep for a month, all of the essential immunity boosting properties will have infused themselves into our concoction. You can take a teaspoon each morning to help warm your body and keep yourself healthy, or increase to 3 spoonfuls or a small shot glass when you feel the sniffles coming on.

Chops and prepare all ingredients except the apple cider vinegar and place into a quart sized mason jar. Then, fill remaining jar space with the apple cider vinegar.
Place a piece of parchment paper or butcher paper on the top of the jar (under the lid) so that the vinegar doesn’t touch the metal of the lid.
Shake mixture and store in a cool, dark place for a month.
Shake daily.

After a month, strain the mixture with a piece of cheesecloth. You can take the fire cider straight, mix into organic juice, or even cook with it -stir fry is the perfect pairing!
You can even reuse the solid pieces you strained out to cook with. Again, stir fry or Asian cuisine is a the perfect pairing for the hot vinegar goodness.

Enjoy your fire cider!

*I’m of course, not a doctor and this post isn’t meant to serve as medical advice. If you find yourself seriously ill, please consult a medical professional. *

Fall is upon us folks!! You know what that means — women around the world are trading in their cold drinks for pumpkin spice and their sundresses for leggings. It’s just become like a fact of life now. Haha. As someone who is in love with wide necklines and slouchy sweaters, I decided to add a slew of comfy tops to my wardrobe before the leaves finished changing colors. After looking through all my fall favorites and created this pattern as a combination of all the most comfortable attributes. I’m pretty sure I hit a home run here and I’m so excited to share. 🙂

This slouchy shirt is perfect for pairing for leggings and boots and even layered with a vest because they’re meant to be made from buttery soft knit fabrics. With options to lengthen the shirt, add a pocket, create a slimmer fit and even use contrasting fabrics and patterns, it’s easy to get carried away making a dozen or two of these breezy beauties. I even used a few pieces of old clothing to upcycle into new shirts.

Materials Needed to make your own slouchy shirt:

*Sergers are best for sewing clothing but you can create this shirt using a standard sewing machine with a straight and zig zag stitch. I prefer to assemble first with my standard machine and then reinforce seams with my serger later.*
This pattern and full step by step tutorial are now available in my shop. 🙂 Check it out HERE.

Raise your hand if you have a kiddo that has a hard time with washing or brushing their hair..

See, I knew I couldn’t be the only one. My oldest daughter just turned 4 last month and though she has this long, beautiful hair that already has natural highlights in it, she has a HUGE resistance to letting me brush it. Being someone with hair almost to my butt, I know how important it is to brush your hair to avoid tangles. But of course, she doesn’t get that. She just thinks I’m torturing her for no good reason. That’s the mind of a four year old anyway…

We’ve tried just about every brush out there. Seriously, we have a graveyard of brushes that weren’t up to par that just get used on Barbies or other doll. I had tried using detangler and though it seemed to work just the slightest bit, there was still a lot of resistance coming from her and she kept insisting that it was hurting.

Along come Hip Peas. Kaliah is having a little phase of cradle cap so I wanted to make sure to address that issue as well. I got some of the cradle cap care as well as the detangler and crossed my fingers that at least one would prove to be helpful.

I used the cradle cap care first. You just put in in their hair, focusing on the areas with cradle cap and let it sit for a few minutes. Pass the time by making a little bubble beard sculpture on your kiddo’s face or toss a couple glow sticks in there (put in the whole thing, don’t break the actual liquid into the bath).After a couple minutes you can use a little scalp scrubber to gently help lift off the spots of whatever the heck cradle cap actually is. I bought a few of the ones I got sent home from the hospital with off Amazon but my mom found the blue on in my photo and it has been a million times more effective. It’s a nice hard plastic so the bristles don’t give as easily once your kid actually has some hair on their head.

Verdict….ALL the cradle cap was gone after one use. This stuff is a keeper.

The next time I knew we would be going somewhere (and Natalia’s hair was dry) I tried out the detangler. First off, I love the smell of it. Not overbearing, but still delightful and the sprayer is definitely my preference compared to others. It has a very evenly distributed spray with a manual pump spray head. I see this as a big convenience compared to the sprayers that have a more direct spray and get all over the place, especially if your kiddo moves right as you spray. You don’t want it going all over the bathroom, right?

I sprayed it all throughout her hair and amazingly, it worked better than the others I had tried. She made it through an entire ‘beauty parlor’ session without freaking out over me brushing her hair. Trust me, that’s a *HUGE* deal here.

All that being said, we’ve really been enjoying trying out all kinds of fancy hairstyles since getting the detangler. Natalia gets excited for me to brush her hair but only if we spray it first. 😉

So you mamas with the overly tender-headed kiddos out there, do yourselves a favor and stock up on all the Hip Peas hair products. You’ll thank me. 🙂